vēsture

See also: vesture and vēsturē

Latvian

Etymology

Coined by Atis Kronvalds in 1868, derived from vēstīt (“to herald, to announce”) (compare vēsts (“news”)). Its form was influenced by Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “inquiry, examination, research; news; retelling; history”); Kronvalds cited a word historija (no longer in use) as a synonym of vēsture. The concept of history had previously been expressed as stāsti (“stories”), pasaules stāsti (“world stories”) (compare German Geschichte (“stories; history”)), and, in the mid-19th century, also with the Russian-derived term istorija (compare исто́рия (istórija)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [væ̀ːstuɾɛ]

• Audio:

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Noun

vēsture f (5th declension)

1. history (a chain of events, a process seen as evolving in time)

   Zemes ģeoloģiskā vēsture ― the Earth's geological history

   pilsētas, novada vēsture ― city, regional history

   latviešu kultūras vēsture ― history of Latvian culture

2. history (the past; past events)

   tas pieder vēsturei ― this is (lit. belongs to) history

   mācīties no vēstures ― to learn from history

   vēstures fakti ― historical facts

   ieiet vēsture ― to enter history (= become famous)

3. history (the science that studies the development of human societies in time)

   vēstures fakultāte, muzejs ― history faculty, museum

   vēstures filozofija ― philosophy of history

   vēstures avoti ― historical sources

   pilsētas vēstures arhīvs ― city's historical archive

   studēt mākslas vēsture ― to study art history

   seno, senāko laiku vēsture ― older times (= ancient) history

   viduslaiku vēsture ― middle times (= medieval) history

   jauno, jaunāko laiku vēsture ― newer times (= modern) history

Declension

Declension of vēsture (5th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	vēsture	—
accusative (akuzatīvs)	vēsturi	—
genitive (ģenitīvs)	vēstures	—
dative (datīvs)	vēsturei	—
instrumental (instrumentālis)	vēsturi	—
locative (lokatīvs)	vēsturē	—
vocative (vokatīvs)	vēsture	—

Derived terms

• vēsturisks
• vēsturnieks

Descendants

• → Latgalian: viesture